


Mic Check One Two

by sparklespiff



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-02
Updated: 2007-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-11 15:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklespiff/pseuds/sparklespiff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jpop AU.  "I'm so sorry to disturb you desu!" The bowing intruder is wearing all pink save for a green headband and Akutsu thinks it's a girl at first but then the kid straightens and Akutsu knows who he is, has seen his face on the covers of idol magazines. It doesn't explain why Dan Tachi is standing outside of his dressing room, though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mic Check One Two

**Author's Note:**

> Blame "Get Free" and the fact that Akutsu feels the need to write mic checks into the middle of his songs. Weirdo. Thanks to chriek for an awesome beta job.

  
It's the middle of a concert and there's a disturbance in the audience. Akutsu's used to fights breaking out so he keeps singing, pulling the microphone out of the stand and stalking up and down the stage so he can see his creepy old manager off to one side signaling that it's no big deal, some pop kid got spotted in the audience and the fangirls are mobbing for autographs. _The fuck ever_, Akutsu thinks. _It's the kid's own fault for going to a concert and standing in the crowd._ He's a little peeved that teenyboppers are listening to his music, though. His stuff is badass, damn it.

Afterwards he's relaxing with a beer in his dressing room, his moment of calm before the partying and someone has the gall to knock on his fucking door. The knocking doesn't stop and Akutsu _knows_ he's five seconds away from a headache so he gets up and puts on his most pissed off face and yanks the door open. "The fuck do you want?"

"I'm so sorry to disturb you desu!" The bowing intruder is wearing all pink save for a green headband and Akutsu thinks it's a girl at first but then the kid straightens and Akutsu knows who he is, has seen his face on the covers of idol magazines. It doesn't explain why Dan Tachi is standing outside of his dressing room, though.

"I came to apologize for disrupting your concert desu! I just really, really, really like your music so I wanted to see you perform desu and my mommy said not to come desu and that she would call your manager desu but I didn't want to do that so I snuck out desu, oh yeah, my mommy is my manager desu, I guess I didn't say that desu—" Akutsu gets the feeling the kid could stand there babbling for an hour so he reaches out and pulls him into the room before slamming the door.

"The fuck is the matter with you?" Does the kid realize how much damage it would do to either of their images to be seen together? "You're just running your mouth off in the hallway where _anyone can see_. And the fuck do you mean, you like my music?" Dan Taichi is a fucking pop _angel_ and can't possibly understand where Akutsu's music is coming from. The inspiration for half his songs comes when he's drunk and he doubts the kid's ever touched so much as a glass of champagne in his life.

"Oh, _yes_ desu, I think you're _amazing_ desu!" and are the kid's eyes seriously _sparkling_? How much fucking glitter does he wear?

Akutsu doesn't get it. His albums have parental advisories on them. "How old are you? Ten?"

"I'll be sixteen in a few days desu!"

"Yeah fucking right."

"I don't lie desu!" The kid looks way too hurt. It's ridiculous. "Lying is bad desu!"

Akutsu is contemplating explaining the way the world works to Mr. Shiny Eyes but a voice comes shrieking through his door before he can open his mouth. "Taichi! Tachi, I know you're here! Where are you?"

"Mommy's here! How does she always find me desu?" And then he's jumping up and taking a picture of them both with his cell phone without so much as a one-two-three.

"You can't take pictures of me without paying." The kid should know how this works, but he's just grinning at Akutsu.

"Okay desu! Cell phone please desu!" He holds out his hand. Akutsu's not sure why, exactly, but he hands over his phone. There's something about Dan Taichi that makes him hard to refuse.

And then Dan fucking Taichi is pulling Akutsu down to his level and taking a picture on Akutsu's cell phone, and then he's laughing and saying, "There! Now we're even desu!" as he drops the phone back in Akutsu's hand before bouncing out Akutsu's door.

Akutsu is left with a beer and a blurry photo, wondering what the hell just happened.

*

All of a sudden it's like Akutsu can't turn on the radio without hearing Dan Tachi's voice. _Masshiro na Chikai_ is too fucking young, too fucking hopeful. Akutsu Jin doesn't have any use for such things.

He breaks three lamps on the way out of the hotel, just because he can.

*

He's in his bedroom, his sanctuary, with his favorite guitar and lyrics he'd written on a napkin in a bar, and he's trying to get the chord progression down when he hears the squealing.

"Oh, _wow_ desu! You play guitar so well desu! You're _amazing_ desu!"

Akutsu counts to ten before looking up, but the kid is standing in Akutsu's doorway with his hands folded. He's wearing almost all white this time, a strawberry with cat ears on the front of his t-shirt, and there's no way Akutsu could have imagined that, which means unfortunately that Dan Taichi is really in his house.

"The fuck are you doing here?"

Akutsu's question gets ignored for babbling about his fucking _guitar_. "How do you do it desu? I'm not allowed to learn desu because Mommy says the strings would chip my nail polish desu—" and Akutsu looks and sure enough, the kid's nails are painted bright pink.

What the hell is this cotton-candy pop brat doing in his room? "Look. Dan—"

"Taichi desu! Mommy says I belong to everybody desu, so everybody can call me Taichi desu!"

Akutsu Jin doesn't belong to _anyone_, and he says so.

"I belong to my fans desu. I love my fans desu!" It sounds so _practiced_, even the smile at the end and Akutsu thinks that maybe he can understand what the kid's doing here after all.

But that doesn't mean he can barge in on Akutsu's _space_. "Okay, kid, this is—"

"Taichi desu!"

"Fine. _Taichi_." He's only doing it to make that horrible whining stop. But then the kid's—_Taichi's_—smile gets so big and Akutsu finds he can't say what he was going to and instead ends up showing him how to play a G chord.

And then Taichi's cell phone rings and he's getting up and scampering out Akutsu's door calling, "I had so much fun with you desu!" before Akutsu can tell him never to come back again.

Whatever. He can work on his song now. Only he can't find that napkin, _fuck_. He tears apart his room before he realizes it's in his pocket and then he's got a whole lot of rage, which is just fine, rage he can work with, and he picks up his guitar but then there's giggling in his doorway and _that_ he most certainly can _not_ work with.

It's his mother, giving him that look that means she thinks he's adorable. He's not fucking cute. He's fucking badass. What is it that makes people think they can walk into his room and—

"The hell did you let that brat in for?"

"Taichi-kun?" That sets off the giggling again, and _blushing_ and Akutsu thinks he's going to go throw up in the corner. "Taichi-kun is so _cute_! I'm so glad you're friends!"

_Friends_? Has she gone insane? "We're not fucking _friends_! I don't fucking _know_ him, he's just fucking _stalking_ me—"

"But he says he really likes you, Jin, isn't that adorable—"

_What is the _matter_ with the world?_ "I'm serious, woman. If you keep this up I am going to fucking move out."

She just laughs like she's heard it all before. Probably because she has. It's not that Akutsu's scared to move out. He just can't leave his mother alone, not after all the crap she's had to put up with from him. He owes her that much. (Not that he's ever going to say it.)

In fact: "Get out of my room! I'm trying to fucking _write_!"

She just grins and pets his hair—"I spent a fucking hour on that, can't you learn to leave my fucking hair the fuck _alone_?"—and promises to bring up brownies.

*

Akutsu has a horrible day at the studio with stupid fuckers telling him what to do. When he gets upset, they say he should deal with it because that's how the business works but _fuck that_. Nobody tells Akutsu Jin what to do.

Which is why it really, really pisses him off when he gets home and finds Taichi sitting on _his_ couch saying, "Let's go out for ice cream desu!"

He will fucking _not_. "How many times do I have to fucking say we can't be seen in fucking public together?" It makes him want to punch a wall. He doesn't want to punch Taichi, strangely, but he tells himself it's because the kid's face is worth a whole lot of yen and Akutsu doesn't feel like dealing with any more lawsuits.

"We can wear disguises desu!" As if that's going to work. Akutsu is almost awed by the stupidity.

"We can't just fucking go out and—" The hell. Is the kid _crying_?

"I just wanted to hang out with you desu because you're really, really cool desu and fun desu and I like spending time with you desu but you don't like my idea desu and I'm sorry desu I'm sorry don't hate me desu!"

Akutsu is horrified. _Horrified_.

It really is the only explanation for the way he ends up sitting on his couch with Dan Taichi eating ice cream they've ordered in (oh, the perks of being a rock star) watching fucking _Pokemon_.

Akutsu tells himself this will never happen again.

Only it does. Three times in the next week, until Taichi shows up and says he can't have ice cream because his mother found out and said ice cream was absolutely not part of his diet.

So they sit on Akutsu's couch eating fucking _celery sticks_ while Akutsu wonders what the hell happened to his life.

*

When the basket of cookies gets delivered to the studio, Akutsu thinks, _This has got to stop._

He dials Taichi's number to tell him that he can't keep doing this, shouldn't be seeing Akustu _at all_ but Taichi sounds _so damn happy_ to be getting a call from him that he can't say it, and Akutsu bangs his head against the wall and resigns himself to another day of bunnies and kittens and that goddamned _desu_. It's kind of cute, anyway—except that it isn't, it isn't, it can't be and what the hell is _wrong_ with him?

Only the cookies aren't that bad, and he'd ripped off the attached card before too many people had time to see, and he'd glared at those who had, hard enough to know they wouldn't tell because they feared for their lives and genitals and other things people cared about Akutsu ripping to pieces.

Except he hasn't done much of that lately.

Fuck. The kid is _changing_ him, and that can't—he can't—

He has to end it.

*

When Taichi shows up at his house, Akutsu tells him to get out.

He looks so confused and says, "I brought cakes desu. I told my hairdresser to get them for me desu so Mommy doesn't know desu." He holds out a little white box wrapped in string, and Akutsu takes it and hurls it against the counter so the cardboard bends and rips and falls so there's a mess of cake and icing on the floor.

"Get the fuck out," Akutsu repeats, and the kid's just standing there, staring at him with his big, big eyes. Akutsu makes himself look at the kid while he screams because it won't work if he stares at the corner like his eyes keep wanting to. This is for Taichi's own good too, dammit, but Akutsu doesn't say that, just yells and yells about how he's stupid, so fucking stupid, can't he see he's messing up Akutsu's life, why won't he just fucking _leave_?

And finally, finally, the kid's getting down on his knees and cleaning up the cake and dumping it in the trash and then he's walking out with his shoulders shaking. But before he gets to the door he turns around and wipes at his eyes and says, "I'm sorry desu. But Akutsu-sempai is the stupid one desu." Then he's running out the door and Akutsu is alone in the kitchen and everything is fine now, everything can go back to normal, only his eyes are burning and his throat hurts, but fuck that, _fuck that_, and he screams and turns to punch the wall and does that until the skin on his knuckles is torn up. He rips the towel in the kitchen and uses it to bandage his hands and grabs a beer out of the fridge, clumsily; his hands are shaking now but he manages to get the bottle open because this is the way it's supposed to be. Making kids cry, that's what he's good at. He's not cut out for that other stuff.

It's been a while, but it's not like you need to remember how to drink until you pass out.

*

He wakes up on his couch to a horrible headache and his mother petting his hair.

"Leave the hair alone," he grumbles for the millionth time, and his voice is fucked up like he's been screaming or crying or some combination of the two, not that he remembers.

"Taichi-kun was very upset," she starts, and he knows she wants to talk about it. He doesn't, so he closes his eyes and hopes she gets the message.

Clearly she does not. "He sat outside for an hour. I had to tell him to go home."

"What are you telling me this for?" He doesn't care. "And how fucking stupid is he anyway? _Outside_? Someone could have fucking _seen_—" and he's said enough, more than enough, from the way his mother is looking at him, that sad _understanding_ look, and that makes the headache worse, like a fucking drum solo taking place all over the inside of his skull.

"I'm proud of you, Jin," she says quietly.

It's nothing to be proud of. "I just didn't want him hanging around, that's all."

She smiles and bends to kiss his forehead and he's too damn tired to push her away.

*

The problem with telling Taichi he never wants to see him again is that it's impossible—every time Akutsu turns on the radio, he hears him; every time he turns on the television there's Taichi in some ridiculous video; every time he passes a magazine stand, there's Taichi's face on the fucking covers.

Getting trashed out of his mind at industry parties seems even emptier than it used to but at least there are no reminders there.

At least until Sengoku Kiyosumi shows up. Sengoku is one of the few performers Akutsu actually tolerates, mostly because Sengoku shows signs of being a legitimate artist every once in a while—a very rare once in a while, Akutsu thinks, because most of the time Sengoku couldn't be more boy band if he tried.

But the problem with tolerating Sengoku is that it makes Sengoku feel it's alright to _talk_ to him. Akutsu sits in a corner with a beer and watches, steeling himself, while Sengoku makes the rounds before pouncing upon him with a, "Luckyyy~!" as if Akutsu had just wandered into Sengoku's view, as if he hadn't been lurking in the same fucking corner all night long.

"Akutsu!" Sengoku's got an arm slung over his shoulders that Akutsu has learned to bear with by now. "Did I tell you about my kohai? He's so _cute_!"

Sengoku has a way of blabbing proudly about the younger members of his talent agency that makes Akutsu suspect his propensity for dating models is just a cover up for the fact that he's gayer than a box of glittery spandex leotards.

Akutsu drains the rest of his beer and grabs another—he'll need it, because Sengoku can talk and talk and _talk_—which Sengoku apparently takes to mean, "No, you didn't. Please tell me everything!" because Sengoku opens his mouth and that's it—words, words, words flooding all of Akutsu's air.

"He had a little bit of trouble at first but he was trying SUPER HARD and he got better really quickly—after some help from his really awesome Sengoku-sempai, of course—" The urge to roll his eyes and ask exactly what Sengoku's been helping this boy with is strong, but Akutsu resists, and Sengoku continues on.

"And he's really sweet and so helpful around the studio. This kid's my favorite, I'm serious, but I tried to give him some tips on the ladies and he said he wasn't interested in girls, can you believe that? I _love_ the ladies! I don't understand how anyone can't!"

Then he does roll his eyes, but Sengoku is completely oblivious.

"And he wears really cute outfits—oh, I haven't even told you his name—it's Dan Taichi, he's getting really popular now, I'm sure you've seen him around—" and suddenly Akutsu's insides go into a crazy tangle, like he's going to throw up—what the hell, he hasn't had _that much_ to drink, damn it—but Sengoku apparently doesn't notice because he keeps talking.

"—and he'd really be something if he made a few decisions on his own every once in a while and it really seemed like he was for a bit but the poor kid's been depressed the past few days and he won't talk to me about it but I think I might show up at his concert on Thursday to cheer him up—hey, Akutsu, where are you going?"

"Home." Akutsu's manager is going to be really fucked off at him in the morning, but Akutsu hasn't ever given a damn about what Banji has to say, so it's not like it matters.

*

Fuck. The hell does he care what Sengoku does with the kid?

Taichi's better off, even if his precious "sempai" is a fucking skirt-chaser, and _the fuck does Akutsu care_, he doesn't, he doesn't need anyone _anyway_—

The bottle in his hand breaks and perfect, just perfect, now he needs a fucking bandage. He stumbles into the bathroom and starts tearing the medicine cabinet apart until his mother comes downstairs, worried at the noise, and Akutsu screams at her and falls against the towel rack and what the fuck ever. The kid can do whatever the hell he wants; Akutsu doesn't give a damn.

*

He can't sleep, but that's nothing new—he's used to climbing out on the roof at four in the morning with a cigarette (his manager keeps saying that smoking will screw up his lungs, his voice, but Akutsu has always thought he'd die before that mattered, so fuck his manager) but tonight it's not helping. He realizes what it is when he's lying down, loose shingles digging into his back—Akutsu has never wanted forgiveness before. It's an uncomfortable feeling, heavy like a cement block in his stomach. It's not the sort of thing you can fix by punching someone in the gut and he's not sure how to deal with it.

*

The concert is sold out, but Akutsu doesn't have any trouble getting a ticket. Banji says he can get Akutsu a backstage pass, but Akutsu plans on hiding in the audience.

That turns out to be harder than expected for a few reasons:

1\. The room is filled with bright light.  
2\. Akutsu is quite possibly the only guy in the entire audience.

It makes Akutsu want to scream, but that would make him even more noticeable, seeing as his voice is not a headache-inducing high-pitched squeal. The show hasn't even started and already he wants to die. There are whispers and pointing, but that's not the worst part—he glares and the fangirls back off. What's _not_ okay is when fucking _glitter_ rains down from the fucking _ceiling_.

The opener sucks, some fucking boy band, and he tries his best to tune them out while busying himself with brushing the glitter out of his hair. All the damn gel is making it stick, though, so he's still trying to get it off when Taichi walks out on stage wearing the shortest shorts Akutsu has ever seen, a tiny feather jacket, and a pair of fucking angel wings. Akutsu thinks he looks ridiculous, but the girls surrounding him apparently do not—if Akutsu never has to hear another, "Omigod, I love you, Taichi-sama!" again, his ears will be thankful. As it is, his eyes hurt from all the blinding pastels and his skull feels like it's about to split open and _why the hell is he here_—

And then Taichi starts to sing. It's the kind of disgusting pop-masquerading-as-music that makes Akutsu want to drown small animals, but it's Taichi's _voice_ and that feels like a million different things—like sitting on his couch with a carton of ice cream, like fucking _sunshine_—and Akutsu finds himself smiling, just a little.

Taichi spots him after his third song. Akutsu knows because Taichi stares right at him—all the fangirls in his general area squeal, "Taichi-sama was looking at me!"—and screws up his lyrics. Akutsu doesn't know Taichi's songs, but he knows a cover-up when he hears one, almost as obvious to him as if Taichi had dropped his microphone.

It's strange that things are coming together in his head in the middle of the shrieking chaos around him, but they are, and Taichi's eyes are still on him. Akutsu has almost figured out what he wants to say when Sengoku suddenly appears on stage, and that's it, gaze broken, Taichi's saying, "Sengoku-sempai! What are you doing here desu?" and the girls are screaming louder than ever and Akutsu's brain is going, "Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea," over and over again. Sengoku's got his arm around Taichi and they're fucking _singing_ together and Akutsu wants to fucking _leave_. And then Sengoku kisses Taichi's cheek to the background noise of a thousand swooning teenage girls and Akutsu has never wanted to punch someone so much in his life—mostly because when he wants to punch someone he fucking _does_ it, only now there's a problem of a thousand swooning teenage girls being _in his fucking way_.

Akutsu stays through the rest of the concert only because it would be too much trouble to push through the crowd to the exit, but once they start moving he moves too, preparing to never see Taichi again, only Taichi's voice is yelling, "Akutsu-sempai! Wait desu!" and he's turning around to see Taichi jumping off the stage—what is he, _insane_?—and Taichi's wings rip off as he struggles through the mass of fangirls but he keeps moving but then Akutsu loses sight of him in the mad rush—

And then Sengoku jumps off the stage too, yelling, "Lucky~! Do any of you pretty ladies want a kiss?" It's so fucking irritating, making Akutsu want to punch him and buy him a beer in the same night but then Taichi is at his side, grabbing his wrist. Sengoku is flashing them the victory sign and the security guards are making their way over and Akutsu figures they can handle it.

"Let's go desu?"

*

They run until they reach an empty parking lot. Akutsu stares at the street lamps, but Taichi's having none of it, yanking his arm until Akutsu has a choice between looking at him and throwing him at the nearest dumpster. Akutsu doesn't want to have to deal with fishing him out again so he fixes Taichi with his most bored look and asks him what the hell is so important he needs to try ripping Akutsu's arm off for.

"You came desu!"

For a second Akutsu considers telling Taichi he'd just wandered by and heard music but he can't even pretend he likes pop so he just shrugs. "Don't make a big thing of it."

"I told Sengoku-sempai to tell you desu but I wasn't sure he was going to remember desu—"

What the fuck. "_Sengoku_?"

"Yeah desu, I talk to Sengoku-sempai about you all the time desu...is that a bad thing desu?"

Akutsu's not sure if he wants to laugh at himself or punch Sengoku in the face. He settles for muttering, "That bastard," under his breath. If Taichi hears, he pretends not to.

"Did you mean it when you said you didn't want to see me ever again desu?"

That is quite possibly the most retarded question ever asked. If Akutsu suffering through pop music surrounded by teenage girls with fucking _glitter_ in his fucking _hair_ doesn't prove otherwise, he doesn't know what will, and that reminds him—"The fuck did you jump off the fucking stage for?" _You could have gotten hurt_, he doesn't say, but Taichi blinks and then hugs him as if he has.

"You were walking away desu. I had to catch you desu," Taichi says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

And maybe it is, only, "You yelled, and people fucking _saw_, and they're going to _talk_, do you know what that means?"

Taichi just blinks up at him. "It means everyone will know I like Akutsu-sempai desu."

He still doesn't get why Taichi thinks Akutsu is worth his time, or emotions, or the inevitable tabloid articles. "You're so stupid, you know that?"

"Are you mad desu?" Taichi is kicking at the ground, getting dust on his little pink shoes, and it's almost enough to make Akutsu smile. Instead he shoves his hands in his pockets and tips his head back to look at the sky. The stars are so bright he can make them out even under all the lights.

"The hell do I care what they think?" he hears himself saying, and then Taichi grins, that big amazing I'm-so-happy-I-wouldn't-notice-if-the-world-exploded grin and Akutsu realizes it's actually true and that for all of Taichi's bubblegum pop ways, he honestly might not give a damn either—that he might have been trying to tell Akutsu that all along.

And that idea—that Taichi might actually know what the fuck he's doing—makes Akutsu laugh and laugh and laugh. He slings an arm around Tacihi's shoulders, says, "We're seriously fucked, kid," and laughs some more when Taichi's eyes go wide.

"That's not a nice thing to say desu!"

"No, it isn't. Now how about you blow off that diet your mom's got you on and we get some ice cream?"

"Okay desu!" Taichi grabs his hand, and when Akutsu thinks about it, it's even better than giving everyone the finger at an awards ceremony. They'll probably make the headlines. His manager is going to flip out.

Taichi smiles up at him and leans against his arm and Akutsu can hardly wait.


End file.
